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Malawi Floods Kill 176, Displace 200,000

Flooding in Malawi has killed more than 176 people, displaced at least 200,000 others, left homes and schools submerged in water and roads washed away by the deluge in the southern African country, the vice president Saulos Chilima said Friday.

While the Mozambican government’s flood plan, announced last year, may have lessened the damage, Malawi was caught off guard. Dozens of people are missing in Malawi, with at least 153 unaccounted for in the worst affected southern parts of the country, according to Chilima, AP wrote.

“It’s a very bad situation,” he said, speaking at a press conference in Malawi’s commercial capital Blantyre. A joint operation between the police and the army was underway to rescue hundreds who were trapped in their villages by flood waters caused by weeks of heavy rain.

“I flew over some parts of the Lower Shire but we could not find anywhere to land,” he said of the south. “It’s a big challenge we have before us.” Thousands of homes had been destroyed, hundreds of hectares of crops submerged and livestock had been washed away, Chilima said.

“We have lost everything,” said a victim of the flood who took shelter in a tent camp set up by the Malawi Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, and Doctors Without Borders.